As the crowd returned back to their duties, Celestia turned to the remaining guard. "Please, take over the gate duty." She got a stiff salute but she smiled at seeing the changeling he had been talking to. The desks of the two gate guards, one changeling and one unicorn, were pulled together so they could talk further.

"I must return, if only to put down any rumors that guardspony might be starting. I really need to talk to whoever is hiring these days…" Celestia tossed her mane into the wind and was gone in another gold flash.

"She do that a lot?" The female changeling who had been arguing when Gel first arrived looked a little dazed by everything that had happened.

Gel looked back to the castle, grinning. "I really hope not, nopony would get anything done if the princess was liable to just appear. Could you imagine the cake shops?" Gel guessed right, this was the mare who had been coming to the castle to try and negotiate, it was obvious when she snorted with a giggle at the quip.

"Okay, so our prince is back, we have something we all need to tell you, please come with me." The mare just turned around and started trotting back toward the changeling camp. Cherry and Sleek were still a touch distracted, but as Gel moved to follow the retreating mare they broke apart and, with a giggle, gave chase.

"What's going on?" Cherry was quiet, but Gel could easily hear her since every changeling they passed was suddenly quiet. Behind them, every drone moved to fall in with the precession.

"Shh, you will see." Sleek was pressed solidly against the bright pegasus. Gel almost cursed, he would have to bribe that one, she seemed at least privy to some of the secrets here.

"My prince. I am Twisty Turn, and I thank you with my heart." The mare who had been leading him stopped, turned and bowed low. Gel had a moment of surprise, then shock.

"My prince…" other voices now mimicked the tone and words, adding their own names. Some of the changelings clearly had lost more than others, but there were two who got to their name and froze.

Gel shook himself, he stepped closer to the first of those two, he knelt down. "Hello." His voice caused everypony to stop talking, a silence hanging over the room.

"Hi." The drone sounded happy, looking up. Gel felt something within him tug toward the changeling, it was that power, the power of a queen. Gel's inward examination of that power made him miss as the drone got up and pressed against his leg, rubbing their head there like a cat. "Nice…"

"You have a name?" Gel leaned in and gave a little nip to their shoulder, the drone looking at him with some confusion.

"I don't remember. I think I did."

Gel's anger was held in check by his compassion. "Would you like a new one?"

A few gasps from the changelings were silenced as the almost-empty drone before Gel nodded. "Please… prince?"

"Yes, I am your prince." As Gel said the words they felt so much more true. The drones had called him prince. Even Celestia had.

Gel noticed as the changeling spun around and bit at his own tail, giving a little gasp at it and turning his attention back. "Swift Bite." Gel lifted a hoof and rubbed the drone's head. "Now, can you tell me what you wanted to, again?"

The drone looked ecstatic, he bounced a little in excitement before bowing. "My prince. I am Swift Bite, and I thank you with my heart!"

Movement at his side had Gel's attention as another drone, the other one he had recognized who didn't even seem to know their name. "Me too!" Their voice chimed, dragging out the 'too'.

"Brave Voice." Gel leaned down and nosed at Brave Voice.

The little mare, newly given a name, bowed. "My prince, I am Brave Voice, and I thank you with my heart."

Gel blinked, giggled and soon the whole hive of changelings raised their voices in laughter. Brave looked a bit confused at first, but soon laughed along too because, really, laughing was fun.

"Prince, we have matters to discuss. You need to see the princess, we need more food and only being allowed out of this… camp, would-" Gel cut Twisty off.

Gel settled onto his flank and then down, settling with the two happy little freshly named drones beside him. "I have talked with Princess Celestia. I will be securing the rights of us all before this day is done. There will be some concessions we need to make, and things to discuss."

Twisty Turn's heart beat faster. He had already started this? An ache, a weight she had been carrying, that had been driving her hooves down into the ground, seemed to lift. "Name it, I am ready to assist you, prince."

"Just Gel will do, or Gel Pattern if you really want to get fancy. So, how many do we have who need help to feed safely?" Gel got right down to things and he watched as the clever changeling, apparently having lost very little to Chrysalis' magic, began to fill in the blanks.

Gel walked along, the changeling mare at his side. They had walked uncontested through the city and had even gotten a few waves from ponies who recognized him.

"You're bigger than you were." Twisty's words narrowed Gel's focus down to just the mare and the road they were walking.

"I had to take care of something, something I won't talk about until we are in private."

"It suits you. Are you going to stay with the hive, then?" Twisty couldn't help but admire the bigger changeling, she wasn't sure if he would be considered drone, queen, prince or… king, but she knew she liked him. He lacked the holes other changelings had, but she knew why, he simply filled them in.

"I have a mare, Princess Twilight. Once I have this settled I will be returning home to her." Gel was constantly amazed at his new senses. He could actually taste the sexual interest of the mare. It was a little embarrassing but, at the same time, made him feel every bit the title they were using on him. A pang of desire for Twilight shot through him and he gave a sigh.

Twisty blushed hotly, shaking her head. "I didn't mean… I didn't know you were together…" She tried to ward off his implied accusation with a hoof and a shy smile.

"It's okay, Twisty. You are a good mare and I didn't exactly advertise my ties to Twilight." Gel gave a nod to the royal guardsponies at the castle gate, they didn't stop either of them.

"They just let you wander in here? Have you seen the qu… Chrysalis?" Twisty was peeking down halls and into rooms if the doors were open.

Gel grinned at the inquisitive changeling. "I have, I spoke to her." His words shocked Twisty and she stopped dead still, trembling. "Relax, she is back in the pod. You know what pods do to ponies, right?" The mare moved and caught back up to his long stride, nodding. "She has mellowed even since we got her, she asked to go back in, to stay locked in for a year."

The gasp of the mare and her frozen stance spoke volumes for her thoughts on this. "Wait, she wants… but that…"

"Is going to scrub her memories clean, Chrysalis will be gone and you will have a queen back, one who we can make sure has happy memories." Gel was determined in this. It was the one order of Chrysalis' that he deemed worthy of following. "So we wait. We protect the hive, I will defend changeling interests as well as I can and, when she rises anew, we take her to meet her hive."

Twisty was still buzzing with questions. "But, why would she ask to do that, what would it serve her?"

"She sounded tired, defeated. She was drained and trapped by the sisters." Gel tried to explain things, he wasn't sure why but he found her end almost… noble.

"Drained? You drained her!" It was an accusation but there was no implication behind it that it was a bad thing. "Why?"

"Precaution, we didn't want to have a powerful changeling queen overwhelm us with one of her tricks." They were at the solarium and Gel led the way inside.

"Her pod…" Twisty walked over and lifted a hoof. She could see the tendrils inside react to a changeling being close. "I… I can feel the pod, there is so much energy…"

"Don't, please don't. I only survived it because I had an alicorn at my back." Gel trotted over and, unsure exactly how he was doing it, he blocked her from feeding from the pod.

"A powerful alicorn at that." Celestia's voice had both changelings turn, one with a smile on his mouth, the other with a slight frown. The princess just smiled. "Are you ready to discuss this?"

A folder levitated up and landed on the little table beside the pod. Gel stepped over and pulled a trio of scrolls from his impromptu saddle bags. He still wasn't happy about losing the ones Twilight had gotten him. "I said I would be. First thing, changelings will receive full rights as citizens."

"Agreed, of course. I want more ponies, not two classes of ponies." Celestia held a quill in her golden magic and started scribing the document. "Changelings will be required to pass a license to be able to feed without another licensed changeling with them." Celestia was already writing that one down and Gel really couldn't find a fault with it.

"Changelings will be allowed to legally operate business that trade in emotions and pleasure." Gel said it off-hoof, but knew very well that Celestia wasn't a fan of such things, and only tolerated the ones in her city already because it would cause a riot to shut them down.

"Agreed, but every changeling working in such must be licensed. There will be a second grade of license required for changelings with the power to control a mind with their gaze, that license will include an ethics test. Failure of the test will result in a changeling having that power locked away, for their lifetime." Celestia seemed stuck on this one, daring Gel to make an objection.

"Three strikes on the test and I am happy with that. Casual drinking, that is not focusing on a single pony, will be legal in any establishment with a simple sign to caution ponies who do not wish it, or are sick." Gel looked down to Twisty, seeing shock on the mare's face. "Excuse me a moment," Gel leaned down and close to the drone's ear, "something the matter?"

"This will… we will be able to live, to thrive…" The mare sounded stunned.

"Chrysalis could have asked. I would have sat here, with her, if she had only come without an army." Celestia couldn't help herself, she really meant it too. Sparing a glance to the big pod, Celestia pondered how the mare would be when she came out of there. "Is that all?"

Gel shook his head, a hoof reaching to rub Twisty on the shoulder. "These laws will be Equestria wide and I ask that Princess Cadance attend us, at her convenience, to negotiate the same for her empire."

"Done. I will of course ask for changeling assistance in enforcing these laws, my own royal guard would do well to have some talented drones within it."

It was Gel's turn to nod his acceptance of this. The quill stopped. Celestia lifted the papers, revealing that the quill had actually scribed onto two pages at once with some kind of magic. Gel found himself picking up his scrolls, working through them bit by bit. "Yes, I think we have everything."

Curiosity burnt at Celestia, she dropped the quill and leaned forward, her magic reaching down to pick it up. She got the most oblique look at the scroll the stallion held. It was a list. Her brain took a moment to make the connection.

Gel watched as the immortal princess, one of the two rulers of all Equestria and master of the sun, lifted a hoof to bop herself on the forehead. "A list?"

"Your student's ways rub off." Gel smiled wryly.

"Whose student?" The voice was a trigger to Gel. He got up, his body not making the motion look pony-like, in his haste. He galloped and ran head-long into Twilight Sparkle. The saddle bag he had been wearing fell to the ground as he enveloped his marefriend, starting it with a kiss and flowing over her head, neck body and legs. He started to feed his excess mass into her, realizing what the growth spurt would mean for the mare. "Gel, you don't need to… okay, I get it… yeah I miss you too."

Celestia had seen him like this before, and felt no shock, nor any exclusion at only getting half the conversation. Twisty, however, was stunned. "What is… how did…"

The princess of the day poked the mare in the shoulder lightly. "You didn't see them do this trick in the hive? I heard he was on her then."

"I… didn't. How does he…"

"I don't even know. I do know he loves her very much, and that bond is something even I would fight to protect." Twisty looked up at the white alicorn.

"That town was creepy, by the way. The mare was… stripping everypony's cutie marks off. I felt lost and afraid and I was starting to listen to the brainwashing when I drifted off to sleep and got the surprise of my life." Twilight was explaining things, though both Celestia and Twisty were missing some bits.

"Oh no, I am sure of it, we definitely had-" Twilight suddenly realized she had company and blushed. "Well, it's all settled now!"

She looked at the big pod, her eyes suddenly widening. "Is that why there is so much of you? You are going to have me walking bow-legged for… Okay, I need to leave, your highness…" Twilight was a startling shade of crimson and turned and galloped from the room.

Celestia grinned. "Young love…" She seemed oblivious to the changeling a moment before noticing Twisty was still there. "Go back to your hive, in the morning this proclamation will be announced with the rising sun."

Twisty bowed deeply, gave into her urges and dashed up to the princess and hugged her. "Thank you."

Author's Note

Yay, equal rights! With a few laws regarding their powers.

Hrmm, who deserves a good clopping next? Maybe I need a random wheel of names and one of random, odd, sex acts?

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